Getting High 2,500 Years Ago

[Green Squall]

"For the first time, archaeologists have unearthed well-preserved cannabis plants, which were placed on a corpse some 2,500 years ago.."


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...iscovery-scythians-turpan-archaeology-botany/

 

[WelderDan]

Nice find

 

[killa-bud]

the dicks took all the buds before burying it with the guy!!


they buried him with stalks and popcorn lol

 

[Chimera]

Ancient Cannabis Burial Shroud in a Central Eurasian Cemetery HONGEN JIANG*, LONG WANG, MARK D. MERLIN, ROBERT C. CLARKE,
YAN PAN5, YONG ZHANG2, GUOQIANG XIAO2, AND XIAOLIAN DING2

An extraordinary cache of ancient, well-preserved Cannabis plant remains was recently discovered in a tomb in the Jiayi cemetery of Turpan, NW China. Radiometric dating of this tomb and the archeobotanical remains it contained indicate that they are approximately 2800–2400 years old. Both morphological and anatomical features support the identification of the plant remains as Cannabis. Research discussed in this paper describes 13 nearly whole plants of Cannabis that appear to have been locally produced and purposefully arranged and used as a burial shroud which was placed upon a male corpse. This unique discovery provides new insight into the ritualistic use of Cannabis in prehistoric Central Eurasia. Further- more, the fragmented infructescences of Cannabis discovered in other tombs of the Jiayi cemetery, together with similar Cannabis remains recovered from coeval tombs in the ancient Turpan cemetery along with those found in the Altai Mountains region, reveal that Cannabis was used by the local Central Eurasian people for ritual and/or medicinal purposes in the first millennium before the Christian era.

Economic Botany, XX(X), 2016, pp. 1–9
© 2016, by The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, NY 10458-5126 U.S.A.

 

[armedoldhippy]

if there was not a bowl & a Bic in the grave with him...well, poor long-range planning comes to mind.

 

[Buddah Watcha]

imagine germinating those seeds and getting some really really realllly oldschool genetics

 

[Betterhaff]

Even has trichomes and seeds.

 

[Green Squall]

I know the answer is probably no, but is there even a remote chance the seeds could be germinated given that the area of Turpan, China is desert-like, which is good for preservation?

It reminds of the 2000 year old Judean Date Palm seed that was successfully grown a while back. Although I'm guessing because the date palm seed is so big it was more easily preserved.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judean_date_palm

 

[Chimera]

There was a previous paper investigating cannabis, also retrieved from a gravesite in the same region, which was carbon dated to around 2700 years ago. After much red-tape and paperwork, flowers and he seeds within were exported to GW Pharmaceuticals in the UK, where they attempted germination and did chemical and some basic genetic analysis on flowers and seeds contained within, and had zero luck in terms of germination.

There is no realistic likelihood that these seeds will germinate, although I guess anything is possible until it's proven impossible. I wouldn't hold your breath though...

-Chimera

 

[BlueBlazer]

Heh, for a minute I thought this thread was about some of my teenage antics . . .

 

[armedoldhippy]

There is no realistic likelihood that these seeds will germinate, although I guess anything is possible until it's proven impossible. I wouldn't hold your breath though...

-Chimera

how about DNA transfer, like they are using to try to bring back the wooly mammoth & other extinct animals? would the seeds perhaps have DNA in them?

 

[Chimera]

They do have DNA in them, it's just likely very fragmented.

That said, we're still a ways off from the Jurassic Park tech. They are doing some incredible things with DNA these days (see CRISPR), so I suspect being able to recreate old genetics using modern DNA tech will someday be possible, who knows with the speed of DNA advancements it could even be in our lifetime!

 

[armedoldhippy]

They are doing some incredible things with DNA these days (see CRISPR), so I suspect being able to recreate old genetics using modern DNA tech will someday be possible, who knows with the speed of DNA advancements it could even be in our lifetime!

cool! i'll take two Marilyn Monroes to go, please...

 

[theclearspot]

I imagine that scientists might be able to germinate the seeds in the future so I hope they have kept some samples. Having said that I'm far more interested in the anthropology of these finds; it tells us that ancient cultures used Cannabis for ritual/healing/recreation? We don't fully know, but,it seems from this find that Cannabis was considered some sort of spiritual healing/teacher in ancient Chinese society (hence placed next to the body). That would suggest that it was held in 'high' esteem by ancient cultures (how widespread we don't know) in archaic society. These societies were probably basic hunter gatherer/agricultural societies which used the local environment as their pharmacopeia. They may have used other plants which have since died out etc so worth researching.Can you imagine if they unearthed a plant which was more interesting than cannabis and they could recreate it with DNA samples?

 

[stoned40yrs]

The guy was probably a ganja dealer. His homies buried him with a stash for the afterlife.

 

[Genghis Kush]

I imagine that scientists might be able to germinate the seeds in the future so I hope they have kept some samples. Having said that I'm far more interested in the anthropology of these finds; it tells us that ancient cultures used Cannabis for ritual/healing/recreation? We don't fully know, but,it seems from this find that Cannabis was considered some sort of spiritual healing/teacher in ancient Chinese society (hence placed next to the body). That would suggest that it was held in 'high' esteem by ancient cultures (how widespread we don't know) in archaic society. These societies were probably basic hunter gatherer/agricultural societies which used the local environment as their pharmacopeia. They may have used other plants which have since died out etc so worth researching.Can you imagine if they unearthed a plant which was more interesting than cannabis and they could recreate it with DNA samples?

This guy wasn't Chinese. Turpan is in the borders of modern China but it actually on the silk road out in central Asia. It's a cultural and genetic crossroads. The Russian steppe people's where as influential as the chinese in forming local culture there. And in fact the article describes the burial as culturaly Eurasian.

The chinese have used cannabis as medicine for at least as long as there has been written records. Probably far longer.


"The ancient emperor, Shen-Nung (c.2700 B.C.), is known as the Father of Chinese Medicine. Because he was a good farmer and concerned about his suffering subjects, he looked to plants for cures. According to legend, Shen-Nung tried poisons and their antidotes on himself and then compiled the medical encyclopedia called, Pen Ts'ao. The Pen Ts'ao list hundreds of drugs derived from vegetable, animal and mineral sources. Among these drugs is the plant cannabis, "ma."

Ma was a unique drug because it was both feminine, or yin, and masculine, or yang. Yin represented the weak, passive, and negative female influence in nature while yang represented the strong, active, and positive male force. When yin and yang were in balance, the body was in harmony and healthy. When yin and yang were out of balance, the body was in a state of disequilibrium and ill. Realizing that the female plant produced more medicine, the Chinese cultivated it instead of the male plant. Ma was used to treat absences of yin, such as: female weaknesses (menstruation), gout, rheumatism, malaria, beri-beri, constipation, and absentmindedness (Abel, 1980)."